Miguel Cabrera hit his first home run since Sept. 17. / Kyle Terada, USA TODAY Sports

by Jorge L. Ortiz, USA TODAY Sports

by Jorge L. Ortiz, USA TODAY Sports

OAKLAND -- Detroit Tigers owner Mike Ilitch believes in building his team around superstars. If anybody wants to quibble with that, Ilitch can point out his club has reached the American League Championship Series the last three years.

More specifically, he can show the tape of how the Tigers knocked the no-name Oakland Athletics out of the playoffs for the second season in a row.

Much like last year, Detroit put Game 5 of the AL Division Series on Justin Verlander's hands, and the former Cy Young Award winner again grabbed it and wouldn't let go, guiding the Tigers to a 3-0 victory that sent them to an ALCS matchup with the Boston Red Sox.

Verlander, who has thrown two career no-hitters, was perfect through 5 1/3 innings and held the A's hitless until Yoenis Cespedes grounded a clean single up the middle with two outs in the seventh. Verlander wound up throwing eight innings of two-hit ball with 10 strikeouts, a fitting encore to his four-hit shutout in Game 5 of the ALDS last year.

The bulk of the offense was supplied by Miguel Cabrera, the reigning and likely repeat AL MVP, who clobbered a two-run homer in the fourth inning for all the scoring Detroit would need.

The two superstars have contracts valued at a total of more than $330 million, or more than five times the entire Oakland payroll this season, and showed their worth at the best time.

"They're two of the better players in the game,'' Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski said in between champagne showers. "They're back-to-back MVPs, when you think about it, and they stepped up in a big moment.''

Especially Verlander, who had already suffocated the A's over seven innings in Game 2, only to watch rookie Sonny Gray go one more scoreless inning than him as Oakland won it in the ninth 1-0 off Detroit's bullpen.

This time Verlander didn't hand off the ball until the game was well in hand, with Joaquin Benoit allowing two baserunners in the ninth but closing it out by getting Seth Smith to fly out to right.

Blowing away A's hitters with 96 mph fastballs and baffling them with curveballs in the low 80s, Verlander did not come close to allowing a runner to get on base until walking Josh Reddick in the sixth.

"He had a lot of extra life in his fastball tonight,'' said Oakland catcher Stephen Vogt, who struck out twice. "He was outstanding. He did the same thing tonight as he did Saturday night, he didn't make any mistakes.''

The A's juggled their lineup, moving up the hot-hitting Cespedes to the cleanup spot and starting switch-hitter Alberto Callaspo at second base, hoping his ability to make contact could dent Verlander just a bit.

No dice. Verlander continued a mastery of the A's that has stretched for 30 consecutive scoreless innings in the playoffs. His numbers against them in the last two postseasons are downright cartoonish: 3-0 record, 0.29 ERA and 0.29 ERA in 31 innings.

"It's a win-or-go-home (situation) you visualize when you're 10 years old in your backyard, Game 5, Game 7, gotta win,'' Verlander said. "It's pretty exciting to have gone out there twice in that scenario and done a good job.''

Cabrera, hobbled by a groin injury, had not done much in the series, or even all the way back to last month, for that matter. He did not have an extra-base hit since homering on Sept. 17 and brought a .250 batting average into Game 5, the product of four singles in 16 at-bats.

But Dombrowski said he noticed his third baseman was having better batting practices of late, his drives carrying farther. When a Gray fastball that was supposed to run inside stayed up over the plate, Cabrera pounced, sending it far over the left-field fence with Torii Hunter aboard.

"It was great to see him be able to do that,'' Dombrowski said. "I said before the game I wouldn't be surprised if he hit two homers. 'It wouldn't surprise me if he hit a two-run homer,' is what I should have said. You could see he's getting better.''

With Verlander mowing down the A's hitters, the biggest suspense after the home run was whether he would be able to complete the third no-hitter in postseason history. The thought entered his mind, but not enough to alter his focus after Cespedes' hit. He struck out the next batter, Smith, and two more A's in the eighth.

There were more important matters at hand.

"I would have liked to have thrown a no-hitter, and it was in the back of my mind,'' Verlander said. "But you can't (get distracted) in this scenario. The game is too big.''

And it's precisely in these kinds of games that the biggest stars shine brightest.